A couple “traditional occupation” that consider close to extinction. Some were deemed outdated, while others were regarded simply as ‘having no future’. One thing for sure, most of these jobs were gone because they could not compete with the advancement of new technologies which have caused a shift in the pattern of human’s behaviour.
Here their stories…
Becak driverBecak (tricycle) Driver
Becak is a form of environmental-friendly transport. Once upon a time, becak was more favored type of public transport. Many people preferred to use becak as form of transportation to enjoy the city atmosphere. Even more, many schoolchildren were driven to and picked up by parent’s regular becak driver.
Not only the number of becak decreasing, rarely the driver were still at young age. The younger generation prefer to be ojek (motorcycle-taxi) driver then a becak driver. Not only because driving a becak needs more man-power energy, but also the image of a becak driver itself were far from ’cool’, hence the discreditable popularity among youngster. If this attitude remains, it is almost certain that the profession of becak driver will be extinct because there is no regeneration while the elder were too old to drive.
PostmanThere are times when the arrival of postman created a specific excitement among residents of the house. An incoming letter often creates thrill for the recipient. The letter can bring bad or good news, coming from a family, close friends or even lovers. Either one, each of residents at home presents their own enthusiasm to the postman for he has bought the letter to the house.
The advancement of communication technology presents us with e-mail, mobile phones and fax machine, thus providing easier, cheaper and faster modes of communication. ‘Snail’ mail o longer popular. Postmen have lost the enthusiasm of letter’s recipients, of house’s residents. Many of the envelopes he sends around were no longer personal letter but bills, invoices or advertisement. Nowadays, postmen compete with advertisement of technology to steal public’s heart.
Weight Scale-man
The man always brings weight scale every day walk around the neighborhood and yell out “Weight scale!” without paying attention to the burning sun. His service is to scale someone’s weight, and they have to pay Rp. 500-1,000,-. It is very cheap, indeed, especially nowadays when the price of weight scale has become cheaper in addition to commercially entertaining weight scale we can find in malls and department stores.
A weight scale man daily income is very small, they sometimes work as scavengers to be able to fulfill their basic needs. Usually, their regular customers are children. But now, almost every household have a weight scale, putting the weight scale-man’s job to rest.
Tukang Sayur (Vegetable/fresh Produce Seller)Tukang Sayur (Vegetable/fresh Produce Seller)
In the last couple of years, we can still hear a vegetable-seller yelling out “veggies..veggies..” around our neighborhood. At that moment, housewives and housemaids were coming out of their homes approaching this seller to buy some fresh produce for daily consumes. The surging crowd clamoured for a negotiable price while selecting goods and sharing local neighborhood gossips spreading from the vegetable-cart.
With the rise of new technology, mobile vegetable sellers have become more and more difficult to find. The new advancement in technology more often than not has change individual habit and routines, including these sellers’ habit. They improve their services with the help of new technology. Now, their regular customers no longer have to wait for their arrival in the neighborhood, a short message through mobile phone to these vegetable sellers is enough. Then, the vegetable seller will send a courier to deliver their order right to their front door.
Photo Reproduction KioskPhoto Reproduction Kiosks
The advancement of photography technology has become more apparent nowadays, from the traditional photography with negative film to digital photography. With the new technology, photograph reproduction can be performed in a faster and more efficient manner. An outlet that provides photo reproduction services will be able to print a couple hundred photos in a couple hours. We only need to wait 1-2 hours to print a photo in that outlet. Even a home printer nowadays can print a photo with good resolution and a quality comparable to those photo reproduction service outlets.
Prior to the digital age, to print a photo in those outlets we need to wait up to 4 days long for it to be finished. Not a long time ago, several photo reproduction kiosks were standing in front of many well-known university. With conventional printing technique and pertomaks (a petrol-lantern) as its lighting, this service was quite popular. These kiosks offer their own benefits such as cheap and quick compared to big outlets.
Farmer - planting padiFarmer
Farmer used to be the most important job in our country, Indonesia, with its overflowing natural resources and its fertile land where it needs these farmers attend to this blessing. However, the development of this country has left fewer fields for farmers to work on. Moreover, some possibilities may also be the reason why this job become marginalized, such as its low-ranking image, their unstable income, their exclusion from prosperity that has been ignored by the government and many other possibilities.
Now farmers are the old generations whose energy has been consumed by the burning sunlight and heavy works. Their children prefers to work as an ojek driver, mechanic or technician or move to big cities to get a job, any job. Some of the young generation, who decided to work as farmers because of their love of their hometown, have become scarce.
HousemaidA housemaid as a discourse urban society is a confirmation that modern society is unable to face the basic foundation of their life: domestic life. While life has become harder, technology will always make everything easier and user friendly.
Domestic duties, which were considered nuisance, nowadays can be completed in one touch. In a world of high technology rules where some robots have take over human’s ‘heavy’ duties… where would the housemaid belong?
Mobile BarberHe doesn’t work as a beauty salon or barbershop: he is a DPR (Di bawah Pohon Rindang = under the shades of trees) barber or a mobile barber moving around with his bicycle selling his haircut skill.
This type of job still exists around us, although threatened by its competition with barbershops, which offer comfortable places and similar price. The changing trends of hairstyles also become the reason there mobile barbers lose from the competition.
Their regular customers might be one of few reasons this occupation still exist. Some people sometimes trust only one barber to cut their hair, but this is about style.
The horse chart as a public transportation only used for a short distance in BaliHorse-dawn carriage was one of the main forms of transportation used by Indonesia people. However, with the rising popularity of fossil-fuel vehicles, horse-drawn carriage has been marginalized by those new technologies. Cars, motorcycles and carriages were competing for a space in the road. Moreover, the lack of regeneration has reduced the number of these carriages and only to be found in several areas.
